On 10 February 2011 the members of the Bureau of the Staff Committee were received by the Director-General of DG ITEC, Mr Jean-Marc Laforest, accompanied by the Director of the Directorate for Publishing and Distribution, Mr Giancarlo Vilella, and the Head of the General Coordination Unit, Mr Carlos Neto.

The hosts welcomed the Staff Committee\222s attempts to enter into continuous dialogue with the DGs and gave a summary of the problems arising in the course of DG ITEC\222s day-to-day work.

Notable among the subjects debated were the requirements in terms of IT stability over time (interoperability, mobility and compatibility), awareness of IT security and, more generally, budgetary planning, recruitment and dialogue between the DGs.

Looking into the future, a coordinated migration to Windows 2010 will soon be carried out, on a DG-by-DG basis.

The Bureau of the Staff Committee also noted an important point for future action: the specific training needs of IT staff and the issue of advance payment for these specialised, and often expensive, courses.

By the way : what were the results of Open Parliament Petition ? From my point of view, the text was a little too long. If we do that again for the Commission I would recommand clear bullet points for the petition on one side, with explanations and examples accessible through a menu on the other side.

may be smart to get someone on board from the commission or the parliament - who supports this so it is "their" petition.. on the other hand if it was just launched and aimed at the commission to voice their opinion it could work, like OOXML..